1. Field of the Invention
The protective cover of the present invention addresses a significant problem indigenous to the agricultural community generally, with particular impact in areas of high cotton production, among them central California and Texas.
There is typically a window of time within which cotton must be harvested in order to insure the highest possible quality. That window is governed by several variables, among them planting time, weather conditions during the growth period and certainly, weather conditions at or about maturity. Certainly, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, and to a greater or lesser extent in other cotton production areas of the country, cotton is often mature with bolls open and ready for picking at or very near the time when the fall rains are anticipated. If rain is experienced with cotton in the bolls it may be beaten down, splashed with dirt and it becomes much harder to pick. The quality of cotton is diminished and much of it is left on the ground. As an aside, but of significance to the cotton grower, is the availability of equipment at or about the time the farmer is ready to pick. Due to the expense of equipment, many farmers engage the services of custom pickers and must schedule the equipment as available. If rain or other weather conditions intercede which would make the fields soggy and unable to support heavy equipment, or would otherwise diminish the quality of the cotton plants, the farmer will invariably experience significant financial loss.
The harvest is but one of the problems facing the farmer and not unlike the custom and practice of hiring custom havesters to pick the cotton, the farmer typically has to schedule the ginning of his cotton with available ginning facilities. Since cotton ginning facilities are relatively expensive to construct and are used only once during the year, it is commonplace, particularly in high cotton production areas, for the farmer to pick within the time window and thereafter to cause his cotton harvest to be stored in fields until he can schedule time at a gin.
Until relatively recent times, the storage of cotton was accomplished simply by dumping it in mounds on the ground, but moisture and dirt diminished quality and tended to scatter the loosely piled cotton. With the advent of the module builder, however, farmers were able to store the cotton on large pallets or on some other form of moisture barrier, in modules of compressed cotton permitting greater efficiency in the use of space. Although a cotton module may differ in size somewhat, a typical module is 32 feet long by 8 feet wide and 7 feet high. There are some module builders which will construct a module 36 feet long and the dimensions are provided here for the general purpose of permitting a clear visualization of the invention and the problem which it solves.
Even in compressed modules, the cotton is at the mercy of the environment, and since modules may remain in the open in fields for two to four months, a very significant diminution of quality might be expected over that period of time if proper protection is not afforded each module. Since the cotton market is very quality sensitive, any diminution in quality translates into significant financial losses to the farmer.